The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-04-01


grassy fiat sparsely covered with
small koa trees near the base of a
steep slope terminating near the top
in precipice of bare basaltic
rock marking one of those benches
which those familiar with this re-
gion will remember are common on
this part of the mountain slopes.
From this point of observation the
tout ensemble afforded by the sight
Of the three mountains, Kea, Loa,
and Hualalai, forming the triple
crown of Hawaii, the two former
enveloped far below their submits
in mantles Of snow, while the latter
was faxed with scattered patches of
the same material, was one of I'M
surpassed beauty and grandeur.
Earthquakes are by no means rare
in this elevated region, but by far
the severest experienced by our
party occurred the night after our
arrival at this place, at about eleven
o'clock. We were all aroused from
sound sleep by the lively commo-
ton, and hardly had the last vast
Internal throb ceased when we
heard the roar of descending ava
lanche of rock, seemingly in our i'm
mediate proximity. The fear of a
premature burial caused us to spring
to our feet with q simultaneous
bound, and rush off in direction
opposite TO that from whence the
sound proceeded. But we had not
gone far before everything was quiet
again, and the sharp frosty air for
bade the idea of making attempts at
investigating the cause of our alarm
before daybreak, and we speedily
returned to our blankets and to
sleep.
Early the next morning Tom l..
who was the first up, aroused the
rest of the crowd by rushing into
camp in a state of the widest ex-
element, and telling an incoherent
and improbable tale, as soon as he
could sufficiently recover breath for
the purpose, about a cave suddenly
yawned in the black ledge above us,
in which he had seen gnomc or
specter-some thing of evil, man or
devil. Dick IL. and myself while
inwardly pitying the errant fancies
of our deluded friend, supposing
them to be the result of some vivid
dream or nightmare, charitably
smiled upon him and promised as
soon as we had had our coffee to ac-
company him to his cave and inves-
tigate its live stock. But while
coffee was preparing Tom went off
again taking with him our half-caste
guide Henry, who had appeared
from the first more than half inclin-
ed to believe the yarn. In less than
ten minutes they were back again in
the tent, and their evident sincerity
in their story which more than coro-
borated the earlier report, caused
our skepticism to weaken, and soon
the whole party was on the march
for the newly discovered wonder.
A few hundred yards to the north
of our camp we came to the land.
slide whose roar had so startled us
the previous night. 1t appeared
that the seismic convulsion had de-
tatched large mass of rock from
the pail thereby leaving exposed a
small opening into the face of the
cliff. After climbing with some d.
fficulty the sloping chaos of debris
we entered the cave, which we found
was about five feet in height by
seven or eight in width at the
mouth, growing rapidly larger how.
ever as we advanced through its
silent depth. An exploration Of O
couple of hundred of feet without
artificial light revealed no living
thing except few bats which flew
noiselessly past our heads. We
did, however, discover something il
the dry dust of the floor of the ca.
vern which aroused the liveliest SEN
timents Of interest. 1t was serie:
of exceedingly human-like foot
prints. After sending back to tht
tent for supply of candles we con
tinued our researches into the bowels
of the earth. The cave was simila
in general appearance to thos'
which so commonly abound in tn
lava formations of the country.
After we had advanced, at
rough estimate, some two thOusant
feet, the cave suddenly expanded
into an immense chamber abou
three hundred feet in width, and O.
unknown height and length, and i
was here that we stumbled upoI
what l believe will prove to be tin
most unique specimens of humanit,
upon the face of the globe. AS W.
were proceeding all together nea
the left wall of this Plutonian abyss
we came upon deep pool of water
which must have been part of ,
subterranean stream as was indicat
ed by the silent but eddying cur
rent. At the water our candles
dimly revealed what at first glance
we took to be collection of driet
human bodies Or mummies. But
closer approach showed that thes'
forms were possessed of vitality
In short, that they were living
breathing men and women, but of
most degraded and inferior type.
Our company unconsciously ar
ranged itself in semi-crcIe at